Sunday, 13 November 2016

Ok, I know this album came out on March 18th
and we’re approaching its 8 month anniversary so that is how I’m framing this
blog! It’s a celebration of its 8 month birthday! What spurred me to write this
was the release of the Post Pop
Depression Live at Albert Hall. But the album itself is an album worth
celebrating. With the loss thus far this year of such magical storytellers such
as Bowie and Cohen and musicians in the last twelve months like Prince and
Lemmy, Pop is a remaining legend in the storytellers grouping and deserves
wordly recognition. Honestly, I never listened to him much prior to this album.
I knew his ‘hits’, I knew of his band with the stooges, but I never paid
attention to his work or words. He is 50 years in the music industry. That is
incredible. His longevity is incredible in an industry known for its artist’s
excesses, the cut-throat nature of the industry itself.

For those who are unaware, the album is a
collaboration between Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Arctic
Monkeys drummer Matt Helders and LA multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita (also
currently QotSA). It is Joshua Homme that brought this album to my attention as
I follow his work as closely as I can. Anything he touches musically is so so
awesome thanks to his ability to evolve his sounds and output. He is smoothness
personified in my opinion, his music is like silk to my ears. Even …Like
Clockwork, the Queens last output, it dealt with themes of life and death. It
was dark. It was heavy. It was supreme. But Homme still makes it 100%
listenable. Pop is the essence of 70’s punk: Brash, outlandish, a voice filled
with life and experience. But this album is him at his most thoughtful. As NME succinctly put it, this album is a coming together of these two musical deities
and their skills: “Brilliantly, that’s what ‘Post Pop Depression’ actually
sounds like. Iggy’s vocals and lyrics are astounding – he’s like an angry young
man all over again, and is far more gnarly and potent than any of his
contemporaries”

Ok. Let’s break down the songs.

1.Break Into Your Heart

Pop doesn’t need
to slowly break you into his style. He just goes for it. The moment I heard the
first 0:22 seconds are just so memorable. Iggy with a haunting sounding guitar
behind his painfully somber lyrics [emphasis is mine]:

“I’m gonna break
into YOUR heart,

I’m gonna crawl
under YOUR skin,

I’m gonna break
into YOUR heart,

And follow. Till
I see where you begin. “

They’re
hauntingly beautiful, matching the guitar. Then we get the first taste of the
collaboration. Matt’s drums throughout are tight. Dean’s bass is heavy,
thumping, rhythmic, mesmerizing. The song as a whole just grips you and pulls
you in.

2.Gardenia

This is my favourite song
on the album. I just find the music so uplifting after the emotional journey
that was Break Into Your Heart. Wonderfully melodic chords, a perfect balance
of clear music and Iggy’s voice. Josh’s backing lyrics add to the songs
balance. Iggy’s ‘matter-of-fact story telling come to the fore massively here.

“America’s greatest living
poet / was ogling you all night / you SHOULD BE WEARING THE FINEST GOWN.”

The subject is admonished
for not looking her best for her ‘oogler’. It’s musical narration at its
finest.

3.American Valhalla

Again, the drums and bass
to bring us into this song are excellent. Then, just listen to Pop and Homme
speak
about this song, from the horses mouths so to speak!

My main takes from it are
Josh pointing out that “If I have outlived my use, please take what’s left of
me” is wonderfully emotive.

And I love Iggy’s coarse
gravelly tones nakedly uttering “I’ve nothing, but my name” are haunting and
desolate. The writer is at the end, realising that at the exact moment before
death, we carry nothing but our name.

Lyrically, it’s sinister,
dark. . .impending

4.In The Lobby

The different tones
running through this song are interesting. Musically, the sounds are a little
erratic, high pitched solos alongside an increasing fragility of the writers
mind on each of the “And I hope I’m not losing my life tonight”

From near spoken, to a
slightly upwardly lilting to full on panic.

The messages of mortality
are ones that run through a lot of the songs, if not all songs on this album.

5.Sunday

A lovely funky riff and
drums open this song. Iggy’s lyrics are masterful and storyful. He is part of a
musical artistic collective whose words are more than mere letters. They’re
descriptive art pieces.

“this street is as cold as
a corporate lawsuit.”

Incredible imagery.

Tying into the notion that
in our corporate world, Sunday is just another day for them. For us it’s a day
where we can say “fuck off! Don’t you know it’s Sunday?!” Iggy eloquently
reminds us of this in the live album!

6.Vulture

In an album dealing with a
lot of questions around mortality, it seems fitting there’d be a song about the
bird that feasts on the only thing we leave behind: our bodies. Again,
wonderfully evocative lyrics provide a masterful imagery to us listeners:

“Vulture waiting

For a life to end

Proving the prophet

He's nobody's friend

If he gets near

Your bones he'll clear

He'll jump your bandwagon

'Til it's your corpse he's draggin'”

7.German Days

In this song Iggy is
reminiscing about Berlin when he was with his good friend Bowie. It’s again a
song laced with mortality due to the subject written about.

8.Chocolate Drops

The lyrics are dramatic,
the backing vocals haunting. His words again resonate on many levels:

“When is painful to express the things you feel
(inside)When it hurts to share because they're bare and
real (so real)So when everyday is judgement day, I won't pray
(don't pray)When there's none to share that empty chair,
well okay (okay)”

He’s
fighting to hang on, but understands that if there’s no one to share your
burden with, it’s understandable how you might go in search of your own
Valhalla. But he qualifies his understanding with a possible double entendre:

“There
is nothing in the stars if You fail to moveThere is nothing in the dark, it's just some old
excuseHanging on, let it go”

He
could mean ‘let the burden go. Untangle yourself. Be free.’

Or
he could understand your letting go of just hanging on. Either way. It’s
fascinatingly morbid.

9.Paraguay

At 6:25, it is the longest
song on the album. It is also an angry, I want to say diatribe, but it’s almost
an oration of anger. It’s a fascinating trip from the writer attempting to lay
the blame on his own feet for wanting to “pack [his] soul and scram”, to full
on anger at the “they”; the realisation that “Out of the way I'll get away / Won't have to
hear the things they say”, that fear is what drives people to feel this way.
His anger builds monstrously thanks to his realisation that it’s ‘their’ fault:

“There's nothing awesome hereNot a damn thingThere's nothing "wow!"Just a bunch of people, scaredEverybody's fuckin' scaredFear eating all the souls at onceI'm tired of itAnd I dreamed about gettin' awayTo a new lifeWhere there's not so much fucking knowledgeI don't want any of this
"information"I don't want "you"No, not anymoreI've had enough of "you"Yeah I'm talking to "you"I wanna go to ParaguayLive in a compound under the treesWith servants and bodyguards who love meFree of criticismFree of manners and bores [?]I wanna be your basic Clyde [?]Who made goodAnd went away while he couldTo somewhere where people are still human
beingsWhere they have spiritYou take mother-fucking laptopJust shove it into your goddamn foul mouthDown your shit-eating gizzardYou fuckin' phony two-faced, three-timing
piece of turdAnd I hope you shit it out with all the
words in itAnd I hope the security services read those
wordsAnd pick you up and flay youFor all your evil and poisonous intentionsCause I'm sick and it's your faultAnd I'm gonna go heal myself now.”

That last line is almost
cathartic – he has mentally dealt with the shit in this mortal world. He’s
cleansed of the crap. He’s ready for whatever is next on this life journey. On
his terms.

It’s wonderfully poetic.

In conclusion, it’s an album where Iggy’s dangerousness and raw sexuality [are] meshing with Homme’s
hypnotic guitar rock.

It’s poetic, it’s a trip through a thought
process of what our mortality is and means to this fantastic mind.

Friday, 17 May 2013

It’s my first Arsenal blog in a while today
but I was in the writing mood so I’ll compose a few thoughts on one of our most
consistent players of the past few seasons: Mr Bacary Sagna.

I read that he was the last to depart the
pitch on Tuesday night and his waves appeared to be lingering ones. I would
fully agree with @LittleDutchVA on his Arseblog column
when he said that he’d like to see Jenkinson phased into the team with Sagna
there to help the transition. Gunnerblog
made a very good observation on Tuesday night when he noticed how Gibbs was
“coached through the game by Steve Bould who regularly passed on advice to
Gibbs from the touch-line.” I think we can all agree with him that it worked and
McManaman was fairly subdued in the game. Gunnerblog went on to say that “Gibb’s
positional play and anticipation were as good as I’ve seen him produce.”
Remembering how good Sagna was against Sunderland when he was moved into the
centre due to injuries, I can only imagine his experience at centre back being
a positive were we to keep him for the final year of his contract. I know Merty
and Kos are the preferred centre back pairing but if we could persuade him to
see out the final year of his deal to help mould Jenks into the brilliant
right-back we know he will be that could only be a good thing. He could be that on field coach for the young Jenkinson knowing exactly what's needed having bombed up and down that right flank for his career. I do think our
squad now has the right balance of youth and experience and getting one more
year from Sagna would be fantastic. The criticism he has received at times this
season has been un-warranted. Yes he has made a few mistakes this season but
it’s only after 5 years of sterling service. It’s only now I realised he’s only
human. But seriously, with abs like the ones in the picture aboveyou can be forgiven for thinking he wasn’t human! Super ability coupled
with such impressive determination meant that no cause was lost if it was on
Sagna’s radar. I remember this goal saving clearance like it was yesterday! Supreme determination!

One leg break, let alone two, are difficult
injuries to return from. But return he did and he’s rarely if never given less
than 100% for the team. His recent error against Man United led to a double
error such was his determination to make up for the first error. That’s
determination to right a wrong. We all know over determination can lead to two
wrongs but I forgive when there’s 100% dedication and commitment to the cause
by the player. My belief in his ability to shift from right to centre back is
one that comes from watching Thuram make a similar move from right back to
centre back while playing for Juventus. Like Sagna, Thuram was a top quality
right back, quick in the tackle, strong and his reading of the game was
fantastic. All the skills which are necessary to make the move to centre back.

Keeping this attitude and player in the
squad can only be a positive for Arsenal for next season. This season has been
a very tough one and we’ve no one to blame for its toughness as it was caused
solely by ourselves during the early part of the season. But look at our form
since January. If we can continue with this newly found grit and determination
into next season, coupled with a few offensive additions I believe we are
looking at an Arsenal side capable of challenging for the title. In my view,
Sagna could be a big part of this. No Arsenal fan can forgot thee defining gritty and determined goal of the last couple of seasons!

BOOMPH! What a header! What's that? From another angle you say? No problem!

Obviously it is all dependent on what the man himself wants but he's been a fantastic player for us since 2007 and I'd show the same determination to keep him as he has shown on his right wing since he first sprinted up it

I meant to post this a few days ago and it
slipped my mind so apologies for the late and brief tribute Commander!

So the legend that is Commander Hadfield
has left the International Space Station. The man who brought us into orbit
with him and shared so many wonderful glimpses of our beautiful Earth has
returned to terra firma and he should be returning to a lot of gratitude from all of us. I personally
was lucky enough to have my home countyfeatured on one of his flyovers. Even more
amazingly he got us without cloud. Something that led me to believe he
photoshopped his image! This website is amazing. Kudos to the people
who mapped out his pictures into lovely drop down options. From what I can tell,
via Dara O’Briain, it was this
guy that mapped it out so a big thank you to him!

The Commander is one lucky man however.
Even in this day and age he has bosses that evidently don’t have a clue about
social media. Their employee was up in space tweeting, playing space sounds on
Soundcloud and ‘Youtube-ing’ to his heart’s content! Did the man get any actual
work done up there I wonder?! How many billions in working hours did he cost
his employers? Actually, now that I think of it, I’m glad the Commander is
back. Hopefully the next Commander of the International Space Station actually
does some work up there and gets off the Twitterer and Facebuk or whatever
they’re called. IT’S NOT A HOLIDAY CAMP SPACE PEOPLE.

On a more serious note, in the last number
of years, we have seen the United States decimate its funding of NASA while its
military budget is ever increasing: both are to the detriment of humanity. Not
only is NASA’s core budget cut for sending shuttles to space, its outreach
program is also being destroyed. Commander Hadfield should act as an inspiration to governments around the
globe to quit both cuts to education and austerity measures and pump money into
science and education. It should be noted the interest this man garnered from
the Earth’s populace. Imagine a new age of cooperation among nations and a
space race that was not about one country winning, but everyone. Just imagine
the technologies that could be invented due to massive investment in new research
and people. Look at the jump humanity took when NASA was receiving a mere 4% of
the US’ Federal budget in the 1960’s. Sadly since then, NASA’s budget has
continuously shrunk. It didn’t even receive half a percent of total Federal
funds this year. That is criminal. I mean compare it to the funds the Energy
Corporations receive. Massive, profit making, tax avoiding, Earth polluting,
energy companies. The figures are terrible.

Upon landing (and at the time of writing)
he had amassed 969,338 Twitter followers. Imagine if we could get more people in such wonderfully privileged positions
to engage so wonderfully with the general populace. Give people proper role
models in life with proper aspirational goals. You would hope that stories like
this
are true and that he does inspire more and more people to dream about space.
That can only have a knock on effect in terms of funding and humanities
evolution as a species.

Of course there can’t be many people who
didn’t see or at least know about his amazing penultimate departure day serenade!
David Bowie’s Space Oddity never looked so good and with over
six million views – the world agrees! Can you imagine having written that song,
how awesome it must have been to have it performed so fantastically by an
actual astronaut?! Actual space footage to go with your words? It sent chills
through me watching that video and listening to the words! The Commander has
inspired us and governments should ride this wave of inspiration and drive
ourselves on for a new scientific age.

I mean when you glimpse at a selection of
his best photosit is truly awe inspiring to think of the
possibilities for better understanding our planet and its wonders.

So for reminding me of just how amazing our
home, Earth, is and just how lucky I am to have a chance at living on this
planet, I humbly thank thee.

Saturday, 11 May 2013

This week I’ve been utilising my Spotify to hear some
splendidly eclectic music.Public Service Broadcasting possibly stood out for me. They’re a London based duo according
to Last.fm who remix up old TV sound bites and for good measure, they mish mash
banjo, guitar, drums and electronic into the mix. Really unique sound I have to
say. I like a bit of the old spoken word, Gil-Scott Heron being one of those
that tickles my fancy, but this was something uniquely different. Lit Up commences with a lovely melodic
intro which leads into the following broadcast: “Once again we’re taking you on
board HMS Nelson for a description of the scene at Spider Head [I couldn’t pick up the exact name] tonight by Lieutenant Commander Thomas Woodrum…….. At the
present moment the whole fleet is lit up…."

The crackling of the broadcast, the voices of the past, the
music of the present lends to a really nice ambiance of sound, if that makes any
sense! They’re playing in Cork on May 30th and if anyone is reading
this from Cork, I’d highly recommend going to Cypress Avenue to check them out.
Ironically I’ll be in where their base is, London, on that night. Quite annoyed
at that. In the Guardian’s G2 magazine on May 3rd, they described
how Public Service Broadcasting perform before a bank of old TV sets showing
manipulated footage from the films they get their sound bytes from. Reminds me
of both British Sea Power and God Is An Astronaut. Should make for an
interesting gig.

I listened to their Spotify sampler and the six tracks
available on it were all impressive. I liked Everest a lot. It was a fast paced, lively song. I think it’s at
the top of my shopping list when I get a bit of money again. Check them out
anyway.

This week I also listened to and was glad I found a wonderful
band called Haiku Salut. Their album Tricoloure
is a lovely light, floatsy glide along album. Their use of accordions,
ukeleles, glockenspiels, pianos, loopery and laptopery (last.fm’s description)
makes for a splendidly different album. You honestly don’t know what to expect
from one song to the next. You listen to a rock album, you expect rock. You
listen to this, you honestly don’t know where it’s bringing you but you
trustingly go along for the journey and it does not disappoint you. Beautifully
uplifting, there’s a zest to the album that I haven’t heard in a debut album
before. Sounds Like There’s a Pacman Crunching
Away at Your Heart typifies the album. It sounds like it could be a sad,
crushing song of despair, of lost love, but it’s a beauty of a song. I urge a
listen. Leaf Stricken is just
something totally different following on. It’s the laptopery, loopy stuff
described before but strangely it just fits right in. Not expecting or
anticipating any particular journey when listening to this album is a major
plus. The different sounds they fit in add to the incredible musical journey
Haiku Salut offer. Again – definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Otherwise I spent a bit of time making up a 20 track, fast rock
playlist. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Thursday, 7 February 2013

My apologies this response is a bit late but better to
destroy non-factual and ridiculous arguments later than never!

So in a response to Ruth Dudley Edwards absurd blog there arrived this supporting beauty posted on January 28th. I honestly didn’t think anything could beat Richard
Humphries article in the Irish Independent
but Mr. Hopper’s does.

To defeat his argument entirely and to save you from
absolute boredom, I (and you dear reader) need not go past the title. [I did
venture past the title and decided nothing in it was worth responding to as it
did not make Ireland any more or less unique than any other country in the
world. I let the facts speak for themselves in a few lines time] For Mr. Hopper
to begin as he did with such an inaccurate statement in the title - “ancient
hatreds” – was ridiculous. What ancient hatreds sir? There was aso-called ‘pogrom’ in Limerick in 1904 and
from the research I conducted I found nothing of serious note. A boycott
against Jewish business organised by a young Redemptionist Catholic priest [crazy
warning number 1] by the name of John Creagh
which unfortunately forced the Jewish population from their homes in Limerick
where many fled to Cork and they were welcomed into peoples own homes. That in
itself was a blessing. Have you been to Limerick?* It was a embarrassing and
disgusting period in Catholic Limerick history, not Irish history. Irish Protestants in Limerick supported the
Jewish people in Limerick, Corkonians welcomed them into their homes when the
Jewish people decided they (understandably) had to leave Limerick.

To quote from a letter sent to the Jerusalem Postby a retired History teacher, Leonard Hurley, I give you a small timeline of
Irish Jewish relations:

“Daniel
O’Connell, the “Liberator,” was responsible for the Catholic emancipation in
1829, but Honig failed to mention that he rejected anti-Semitism and in 1846,
in the House of Commons, helped repeal the law, De Judaismo, which
discriminated against Jews. O’Connell stated: “Ireland has claims on your
ancient race, it is the only country that I know of unsullied by any one act of
persecution against the Jews.”

Our [Mr.
Hurley’s] church is called the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church, and buried on
the grounds is Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty was given the title Righteous
Among the Nations by the Israeli government for the work he did in saving many
Jews in Rome during the war.

Many other Irish
historical figures, including Michael Davitt and John Redmond, rejected
anti-Semitism. Redmond stated: “Race hatred is at best an unreasoning passion.”

Both Dublin and
Cork have had Jewish lord mayors, and all political parties, including the
present government, have Jews in senior positions.

Of course, you
will find anti- Semitism in Ireland, but you will also find anti-Irish
sentiment if you look for it in other countries.

But the claim
that Ireland has a history of anti-Semitism is based on one disgraceful episode
and therefore is factually incorrect.

I suggest that
Honig visit the subject again and this time focus on the positive.”

Lastly I will add one more point: You’ll notice Mr Hurley
said definitively that what happened in Limerick was a pogrom. I personally
said ‘so-called’ pogrom in my paragraph above because in 2010 “the new Israeli ambassador,
Boaz Modai, speaking at the Jewish cemetery in Castletroy said: "I think
it [the ‘pogrom’] is a bit over-portrayed, meaning that, usually if you look up
the word pogrom it is used in relation to slaughter and being killed. This is
what happened in many other places in Europe, but this is not what happened
here. There was a kind of a boycott against Jewish merchandise for a while, but
that's not a pogrom. That's
something that is, unfortunately, a bad mark for the history of this city, but
I don't think it is something anyone should pay more attention to than it
deserves."

So Mr. Hopper, Ms. Dudley Edwards, Mr. Humphries and anyone
thinking they made any argument of sense, desist from your attempts to stir
shit due to some silly, silly peoples unfounded garbling and ill informed
writing. I am all for reasoned debate about proper issues in regard to
Israel and Ireland and actual anti-Semitism but your articles about my country
and its people were totally inaccurate and your smears laughable.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

I’ll start by admitting I don’t know who Ruth Dudley Edwards
is but her blog yesterday caught my attention for its content. Her title was
certainly meant to catch the attention of people by being entitled ‘The Jews
Crucified Our Lord: Irish Anti-Semitism and the Complicity of the Catholic
Bishops’.

I write this blog today for a number of reasons, albeit in
no particular order:

1) To challenge the notion that Ireland is anti Semitic. It
has seemingly been dubbed by the Israeli foreign ministry the most anti Israeli
and anti Semetic country in Europe!

2) To challenge some of the opinions that various
journalists and writers have in their variously linked pieces stemming from Ms.
Edwards piece.

3) To offer reasons as to why Ireland is suited to analysing
this complex issue

4) To offer my own thoughts on the matter

The aim of this piece is to try and be brief but to document
with clear evidence why I believe Ms. Edwards blog and it’s linked articles are
so factually incorrect, that they merited this response.

If being able to recognise when abuse is being perpetrated
on a colonised people is Anti Semitic and anti Israeli behaviour then I’m
afraid I too am guilty as smeared. I come from a country that has a little bit
of history with its neighbour, the United Kingdom, who to this day still has in
its grasp of a part of the island of Ireland. As a nation, the Irish were
colonised and occupied for over 800 years. Our darkest moment in our
militarised history one could argue, was in the 17th century when a
certain Oliver Cromwell arrived on our shores in 1649 to reconquer Ireland
after the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His brief sojourn here resulted in the Irish
population being decimated by 15-25% (Padraig
Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, p112) (exact figures are
difficult to obtain for obvious reasons). Massacres and atrocities in Droghada
and Wexford and destruction of food supplies later on in the Parliamentarians
war led to famine. This famine helped exacerbate the bubonic plague which by then
had hit Ireland. So you can see in a very brief synopsis that Ireland too has
suffered at the hands of an occupying force and that is why we not only
sympathise, but also try to help the Palestinian cause. I feel we are quite
suited using the lessons that history gave us to analyse what Israel currently
does today.

I do agree with the part of Ms. Edwards’ blog where she
writes about Sarah Honig and a visit she had to Cahersiveen Co. Kerry and the
disgust that she felt when she spoke to the teenagers collecting for a ‘Free
Palestine’. Their answer that Palestine was to be freed from ‘the Jews’ was
disgusting. I hope that Sarah Honig made a complaint to the headmaster of the
school about the phrasing and educational methods used by their teacher.
However there my agreement stops. Ms. Edwards doesn’t mention that the
teenagers knew what some of the money might be used for as Ms. Honig explains
in her article:

“There, in the tiny
town of Cahersiveen, my doubting compatriots would have been reminded of what
we face in the international community and why it has nothing much to do with
how liberally we conduct ourselves, how many confidence- building concessions
we make at the expense of our physical safety or how much we sacrifice of our
rights to our historic homeland.”

I was not too surprised to read the self glowing report she
bestowed upon her nation but I really have to take up a few points with her!

Firstly Ms. Honig, you say that Israel currently conducts
itself liberally? Really? How about we ask some Ethiopian Women of Jewish descent how they might feel about
that statement.

The
Independent notes that “nearly 100,000 Ethiopian Jews have moved to Israel
under the Law of Return since the 1980s, but their Jewishness has been
questioned by some rabbis. Last year, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
who also holds the health portfolio, warned that illegal immigrants from Africa
“threaten our existence as a Jewish and democratic state””

So
Mr. Netanyahu links Ethiopian Jews to the separate issue of illegal
immigrants?! This acting liberally includes questioning the Jewishness of
seemingly black immigrants by rabbis does it? Interesting I’ve never read the
same questions in regard to American Jews.

Not
a good start for you.

“Confidence-
building concessions”

Which
concessions would those be Ms. Honig? Would those be the concessions made after
the last military incursion into Gaza that Israel has broken not long after the
cease-fire was announced?

I’m
not personally sure how you can build confidence from being in a big warship
and forcing fishermen in tiny boats to submit to your will by confiscating
their only means of making a living. Your confidence comes from others
suffering. Plain and simple – that’s bullying. How do fishermen impact on your
physical safety? Investigating what other people have written in the Jerusalem
Post opens ones eyes a bit more to the worldview of that paper.

At
the beginning of the last
Gaza intrusion Gilad Sharon wrote:

“The
residents of Gaza are not innocent, they elected Hamas. The Gazans aren’t hostages;
they chose this freely, and must live with the consequences,” wrote Sharon. He
went on to elaborate:

We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten
all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese
weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.

There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving
vehicles, nothing. Then they’d really call for a ceasefire.

Were this to happen, the images from Gaza might be unpleasant –
but victory would be swift, and the lives of our soldiers and civilians
spared.

Sharon added that “There is no middle path here – either the
Gazans and their infrastructure are made to pay the price, or we reoccupy
the entire Gaza Strip.”

What
you face when you meet the people living in the international community Ms.
Honig, is growing anger at the blatant illegal Israeli behaviour. The US shields you at
every possible opportunity from UN action with its Security Council vote. It
shields you from criticism by threatening countries leaders that if they do
anything that it deems to be against Israeli interests there will be
consequences. See Palestine and their recent visit to the UN seeking observer
status for a glaring example. What happens when you exit the darkness and enter
reality is that the sun shines brightest because you are unused to the light,
or in this case the truth. The people are aware of what Israel is doing even if
your politicians and a lot of ours do not wish to acknowledge it. You state
with no obvious irony that “there’s
powerful predisposition against us. It’s not fueled by our behavior, because
nobody knows much about how we behave and nobody cares to learn.”

That my dear
writer, is a lie! The real concern we should have is that when people do learn
the truth about what you are doing and do care to learn, it turns into a
question of who can scream ‘Anti-Semite’ the loudest. The truest thing you said
in your article was that “facts are irrelevant.” I certainly believe you when
it comes to Israeli politicians and your politics. Don’t believe me? Then
please feast your eyes on this.

Oh how the Zionists
would love a war with Iran. Sure haven’t they been peddling the nuclear
ambitions of Iran since 1979.

You
were possibly right about one other thing - decent folks don’t dissent. The best folk do. And we have some of those
here. Along with decent and bad. The same as everywhere really.

Returning
to Ms. Edwards blog, she turns her attention to the Irish charity Trocaire and
references an article by Richard Humphries in the Irish Independent.

Where. To. Start.

Mr. Humphries writes in regard to Trocaire saying “that their campaign asks the
Irish Government and the EU to ban goods from Israeli settlements from entering
the EU ‘because they are illegal’ and because these goods are labelled as
‘produce of Israel’.Well I suppose Trocaire's concern for correct consumer labelling
is to be commended but it is hardly the key reason for a boycott.”

Mr.
Humphries – if something is illegal under
international law and under the UN Resolution 446 the Security Council
determined: "that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing
settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967
have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East" and the
Resolution was adopted by 12 votes to none, with 3 abstentions from Norway, the
United Kingdom and the United States of America – if this is not enough to persuade you that the BDS
movement is one of the strongest ways to get Israel to pay attention to their
illegalities – then I am sorry for you. It hasn’t been just a year since that
resolution, not ten, but twenty three
years have passed since that resolution Mr. Humphries and the illegal
settlements keep on coming.

A brief point on
your comment regarding the recent Gaza attack, you said “It's as if Israel decided to attack Gaza just for the
sheer hell of it.” Em….. not for the hell of it, but as admitted by the UK’s
chief rabbi Lord Sacks “I think it has got to do with Iran, actually.”

As
the Telegraph article noted, what was amazing is that when Sarah Montague, who was
clearly concerned that Lord Sacks did not seem to know his remarks were still
being broadcast, could be heard to whisper: “We, we’re live,” it was amazing
thatLord Sacks then swiftly
adopted a more formal broadcasting manner and suggested the crisis demanded “a
continued prayer for peace, not only in Gaza but for the whole region”.

“No-one
gains from violence. Not the Palestinians, not the Israelis. This is an issue
here where we must all pray for peace and work for it,” he said.

Truth
outs in the end Mr. Humphries.

Returning
again to you Ms. Edwards, I feel the silly need to point out that there is a reason,
as I have attempted to show, why Mr. Humphries is one the few dissenting voices
in Ireland when it comes to Israel. He’s certainly a worthwhile ally in
ignorance of facts. Especially when he makes such inherently insufferable
claims like “you don't need to be much of a lawyer to know that when it comes
to political debate, words like "illegal in international law" or
"war crimes" are often used as if these were proven matters of fact
rather than, as they sometimes are, tendentious and biased opinions.”I mean I’m not much of a lawyer since I
didn’t study law, but when I’m not something, I search for someone who is.
Someone. Or eight of someone. Whatever:

“We have found strong indications of violations of the laws of
war and possible war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. We are
particularly concerned that most of the weapons that were found used in the 27
December assault on Gaza are US-made and supplied. We believe that Israel’s use
of these weapons may constitute a violation of US law, and particularly the
Foreign Assistance Act and the US Arms Export Control Act.”

As
I previously cited, Israeli settlements are against international law. So you
know. Evidence. Proof.Humphries + you:
nailed.

In
closing, I will point to the old saying ‘takes one to know one’. South Africa
was a recognised apartheid state and a recent delegation from South Africa that
visited Palestine had the following powerful paragraph in their press release:

“Being South African, it felt like walking into another
apartheid ambush. We witnessed violations of international human rights law and
international humanitarian law on so many levels – the multiple Israeli house
demolitions, the discriminatory Israeli legal system, the daily intimidation of
Palestinians by the Israeli Defence Forces, the Israeli Apartheid Wall and its
associated regime of restrictions on movement and access for Palestinians, the
damage to Palestinian olive groves, the imprisonment of a large percentage of
Palestinians including children, the ongoing confiscation of Palestinian water
and land, the closure of previously bustling Palestinian streets and
businesses, separate pavements for Israelis and Palestinians and a system
whereby the colour of Palestinian vehicles’ number plates restrict them to
certain roads.”

Politically South Africa is taking
one of the strongest stands against the apartheid regime in Israel. The ANC
recently adopted resolution
35 (c) stating: “The ANC is unequivocal in its support for the Palestinian
people in their struggle for self-determination, and unapologetic in its view
that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with
Israel.”

I
think I can safely trust their opinion on a matter of political abuse that they themselves
suffered from.

To
finish, let me say that I do not think Israel is the worst human rights
offender in the Middle East. Another of the USA’s allies, Saudi Arabia, can
have that award. But Israel is not the beacon of human rights that it likes to
portray itself to be and actions like today
for example, in refusing to show up for their obligatory four year rights
review in the UN do them absolutely no favours. But then again, their actions
speak louder than any words. Google African migrants Tel Aviv to see some of
the hatred being spewed there against immigrants currently. It’s truly
sickening. We all have our struggles with rights, decency and morals. Do not
pretend Israel is above that or above criticism. Ireland may not be perfect,
but we are not an Anti-Semitic nation. We just are one of the nations that
believes Israel should be held accountable for the crimes it has committed and
believes Israel should abide by the international laws we do. Part of our human obligation is to recognise the suffering of others and to try and do something about it.

By having people like you and Mr. Humphries aid Israel in
ignoring their responsibilities in international law and
supporting them, you enable them put up wonderful images like this on their
Irish Embassy FaceBook page:

Imagine the uproar if the Palestinian consulate put up a
belittling image on their Irish Facebook page.

So to conclude, if Israel thinks my country is the most
anti-Israel in Europe for its people not kowtowing to an Israeli only narrative
and that my country is the most Anti-Semitic for having its people dare to
challenge illegal settlements on Palestinian land and asking for a ‘Free Palestine’,
then please. Go ahead. Smear me. Make my day. The evidence above points to a different truth.

Welcome!

This is a sometimes bi weekly, sometimes single weekly blogambling of events that concern me, interest me and give me the imputes to write! Main ramblings will be society/criminological related and when in the midst of a footie season - there'll be some Arsenal rambling too! I also try to get out a once a week musical muttering! Hope you enjoy!http://about.me/snappyj

About Me

I've just graduated from a Criminology Masters so this blog will be me writing about issues that concern my now Criminological mind, but there will also be some politics, music, cycling and finally my passion for Arsenal! I'm interested in Religious, Political and State Criminology and I wrote my thesis about religious thought crime entitled White Collar Crime: The Criminal Institution of the Roman Catholic Church